Door knocker

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Door knocker in Florence

A door knocker is an externally attached door fitting with a movable ring or mallet that strikes a button attached underneath to ask the residents of the house or apartment to open it.

The knocker and the surface on which the ring falls are usually made of bronze or iron in order to produce a clearly audible knocking tone even with very solid doors . The Middle Ages and the Renaissance turned the door knocker into small works of art. The first known door knockers date from the High Middle Ages and still had hammer-shaped sticks. The medieval door pullers (in the form of a lion mask with a ring in its mouth) can be distinguished from them formally and functionally , although modern door knockers like to take up their lion ring motif. Another popular form of door knocker shows a hand hitting the door with a ball.

Like the furnishings of the door itself, that of the door knocker is often an expression of the wealth and social position of the homeowner at the time the house was built.

Nowadays, the electric doorbell no longer has its original function, but the door knocker is still used to beautify the front door of a house.

literature

Emil Michael: History of the German people from the thirteenth century to the end of the Middle Ages . P. 262. Herder, 1911.

Web links

Commons : Door Knocker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Door knocker  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations